Members of the independent committee NASA who studies them UFOor those that the government USA now calls “unidentified unusual phenomena” [UAP]said during their first meeting on Wednesday that the lack of reliable evidence, as well as the constant “stigma” surrounding such matters, remain major obstacles to resolving such mysteries.

The 16-member panel, formed last year by leading experts in fields such as physics and astrobiology, held a four-hour meeting that was streamed live on the Internet.

Astrophysicist and committee chairman David Spergel said the team’s role “is not to figure out the nature of these events” but to formulate a “road map” for NASA to guide future analyses.

NASA officials said several members of the team have been exposed to some form of “cyber oil” since they began working on the target last June.

“It’s very depressing to hear about the insults our panel members have received online for investigating this issue,” said NASA Chief Scientist Nicola Fox. “Ill-treatment just leads to more stigma.”

Missing data and stigma

However, the main problem that the committee spoke about was the lack of reliable scientific methods for registering UFOs. The problem, they say, is that these phenomena are usually detected and recorded by cameras, sensors and other equipment not specifically designed for such cases.

“If I had to sum up in one line what I think we have learned, I would say we need high quality data,” Spergel said. “Existing evidence and eyewitness accounts are insufficient to provide conclusive evidence for the nature and origin of the UAP.”

At the same time, there are also “taboos” on this topic.

Although the Pentagon has encouraged military pilots in recent years to report UAP incidents, many commercial pilots remain “very reluctant” to report such incidents because of the stigma attached to them, Spergel explains.

The NASA advisory board meeting is the first UFO investigation conducted under the auspices of the US space agency, as the matter was once the exclusive and classified domain of the US military and national security officials.

^{Source: Reuters.}